Canada doesn’t have a ton to do during the winter but stay warm, watch hockey, and be very concerned about what birth control they’re using, eh? It took a long time for Bayer’s miracle birth control pills Yasmin and Yaz to be approved in Canada after hitting the market in the US in 2001. Canada approved Yasmin in 2004, then Yaz in 2008. What didn’t seem to take very long were the horrible side effects of the drug to start affecting Canadian women.
So a woman filed a lawsuit in Canadian federal court. The lawsuit was quickly approved to be class action in 2009, women or families of deceased women entered into the suit, and it was off to the races. Did that seem fast? It was. Apparently after they cleaned up from the Olympics there wasn’t much else to do but sue Bayer for lots and lots of money.
What are Yaz and Yasmin?
Though Bayer will tell you in their commercials that Yasmin and Yaz will eliminate every general female menstrual symptom from irritability to water weight gain, essentially they are just ordinary birth control pills that have the same 99% chance of stopping pregnancy as other pills.
Drospirenone and Ethinyl Estradiol are the active ingredients. When used in tandem they cause changes in the thickness of the uterine and cervical lining making it virtually impossible for a sperm cell to pass through.
Unfortunately, they also promote the retention of potassium. This can cause women to quickly and suddenly form large blood clots in their limbs and lungs, which in some cases have killed them in little more than an hour after the symptoms hit.
Yaz and Yasmin Side Effects
Lawsuits in the US that have latched onto the FDA warning sent to Bayer regarding their over statement of the benefits of the drug and glossing over the serious side effects. The actual physical side effects are at the heart of the Canadian lawsuit and specifically when Bayer knew about them as compared to when they divulged that information to Canadian consumers.
A lawyer with Siskinds LLP, one of the firms trying the case, Matthew Baer said, “We believe that through this lawsuit Bayer will be required to explain to Canadian consumers what it knew about the risks associated with using Yasmin and Yaz and when it first became aware of those risks. In this case, as with all of these types of cases, we are concerned about whether Canadians were adequately warned of the risks associated with using the products in question.”
Some of the proven side effects are:
- Kidney damage
- Heart attacks
- Strokes
- Pulmonary embolisms
- Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
- Death
Yaz and Yasmin Lawsuits
If Bayer is found that they knew about the risks then they could be looking at one of the largest settlements in pharmaceutical history. The reason for this is because Yasmin and Yaz dominate the birth control market on the basis of aggressive consumer and physician advertising.
Last year Bayer made a profit of over $600 million dollars off of Yaz alone. With that kind of profit the company has vowed to fight to the bitter end to keep this dangerous and potentially fatal drug on the market in the hands of unsuspecting young women.
Their only saving grace is exactly that, their clientele. Young, fit, and healthy women who are able to better adjust to Yaz’s side effects. It is currently unknown how it affects older women, women over long periods of being on the drug, or women as they age even after being on the drug. Only time will tell and perhaps it will lead to even more lawsuits than the thousands already pending.
If you or someone you know are taking Yaz, Yasmin, or Ocella and have been stricken with one or more of the side effects listed above, some of the best advice you can give is to seek legal council right away to find out your legal options. Protect yourself. Call Phillips Webster for a consultation.
Learn More About:
- Ocella
- Defective Drugs
- Avandia
- Provigil
